A Sharp Left Turn

So, I got another phone call from my bank the other day. Gil, my Dunk Dreams trainer, was attempting to cash the check I'd written to pay him. This happens every time Gil cashes one of my checks. The bank asks to verify that I wrote the check, verify the amount, verify the check number...they're full of questions. Take a look at the picture of Gil in the right-hand corner. Now, what is it about him that would make a bank nervous about giving him any of my money? And it's not just my bank and my money. While cashing another client's payment, Gil once overheard the teller on the phone tellng the client, "I've got two black guys here (Gil had one of his nephews with him) trying to cash one of your checks." Nice.

Gil and his nephews have also been pulled over in San Clemente for no reason other than, well, being in San Clemente, and they've been ushered out of the USC Research Library. What were they doing there? Research. Gil takes this all with as much good humor as any person could muster. "I just think, 'Don't they know, I'm the Dunkmaster. I was on Katie Couric.'" But me, well, it just pisses me off. It makes me sad. It makes me want to do ... something. But that's the problem. Do what? So that makes me feel impotent. Another lovely feeling.

A few years ago while writing for the TV show "Roc," I befriended one of the writers, a young black guy, and I remember similar feelings when he told what would happen whenever he'd walk through the Beverly Center mall with more than one of his friends. I think the moral to this story is, if you make friends with black people, prepare to be aggravated. Your ability to maintain any rose-colored illusions about the society in which we live will be severely tested. You might also be compelled to re-evaluate some of your own attitudes. I remember in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 thinking it might not be such a bad idea to seal the borders to anyone with a turban and an "al-" in their name. For a while, anyway. You know, until things settled down. The thing is, reacting to people as a category saves us a step. But, of course, it does an injustice to the individual, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. See how aggravating this is? But, fuck it, Gil's a nice guy, so I guess it's worth it.